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Jason's Crunch on Warhammer 40k tabletop army construction
this page is a basic overview on how to build an army in Warhammer 40k. Armies in Warhammer 40k each have a different play style, so choosing one to suit the player is an important decision, as is army composition, as how you build your army can make or break it, though some are more of a careful balancing act than others. Building your army After choosing the army you wish to use make sure you buy a codex( book of information regarding your armies abilities and history) and plan how you wish to construct them, the minimum requirements for your army are: #2 Troop choices or Basic Infantry squads #1 HQ choice or Leader/ Commander #1 Transport unit (an APC of some sort) #1 Elite choice or Elite Infantry/Machines #1 Heavy Support choice (either a tank of some kind or a Support weapon like a heavy machine gun or rocket launcher or Heavy Infantry, exactly what depends on what army you choose to field) After you've done that you can have some practice games to familiarise yourself with the rules and also you can expand your army to strenghthen its combat ability or Battle tactics to destroy your enemies better. The maximum amount of requirements needed for a full army are: #6 Troop choices or Basic Infantry squads #2 HQ choices although you can have some as squad leaders for other units, unless your using 'Space Wolves' where your allowed 4 units normally #As far as i know there's no limit to how many transport units you can take but it'll tell you in your codex. #3 Elite Choices or Elite infantry/machines #3 Fast attack squads which can be anything from jetpacked infantry to bikers & possibly tanks it all depends on what you choose as the video says a "Predator" in the "Blood Angels" count as fast attack but in other "Space Marine" armies its a Heavy Support unit #3 Heavy Support units which are your most dangerous units and the best at annihilating you opponent, they can be anything from infantry with tank destructive weapons to tanks or even monstrous creatures like a "Carnifex" from the Tyranid Army or "The Oblitterator" from Chaos Armies. #1 Flyer unit but i think that might take up either a fast attack choice or a heavy support but im not 100% sure if you know another way other then those options leave a comment Also depending on which HQ you Choose you can either have extra units in your army or you can get units from other categories as troop choice allowing your troops some much needed support in whatever battle strategies you want your army to employ. Also to keep in mind when composing your army is the points cost of your units and equipment: a hyper elite unit will also have a prohibitively high cost, preventign you from fielding regular infantry or more special weapons better suited to taking down various enemies (e.g. taking a plasma gun to melt through heavy infantry, or flamers to deal with massed light infantry), without which you may struggle to gain victories. Learning your armies capabilities. In your codex (the bok detailing your army, and providing 'fluff' based on your army) you will find a 'reference page' at the back of the book that contains the statistics of each unit & which area of combat they're best in or in a vehicles case how strong the armour is to see how difficult it is to destroy. the statistics of each unit is divided up into WS( Weapon Skill) which represents skill and accuracy with melee attacks, BS '(Ballistic Skill) shows how accurate they are at shooting, '''I '(Initiative) which could also be descrbed as mental alertness and preparation for the battle. several abilities can penalize initiative such as weilding a power weapon, which although powerful enough to tear apart tank armour, also attack last in a round of close combat. 'S '( Strength) which determines how much damage you'll inflict on your opponent duiring your combat phase, and is offset against 'T '( Toughness) which determines how much damage you take from your opponents attacks and can help determine if you survived attack or not, and finally 'W '(wounds) which are basically health points: the number of hits your character/model can take before succumbing to silly things like death. '''A (attacks) which demonstrate how many attacks each unit can perform each battle phase although this can be altered by special rules and giving them extra close range weapons, as, for each close range weapon a model has, the unit gets 1 more attack added to their total attacks. (e.g. an ork boy normally gets 3 attacks but if you charge your opponent while having 2 close combat weapons equipped, each ork boy in that squad can do up to 6 attacks, but cannot shoot), the last symbol you will see is LD (leadership) which determines the minimum number needed when you are subjected to a "Leadership Test". if you fail this test you will suffer negative effects, such as being forced to run from your opponent and pinning. Some armies have a special rule that if your opponent fails a leadership test they can roll the dice and possibly shoot down the rest of your squad while you're fleeing.These statistics mainly apply to infantry, HQ choices and some fast attack units; if you deploy vehicles (and you generally should) it will have values for its W'eapon '''S'kill, 'B'allistic 'S'kill and 'A'rmour values for the front, side and rear of the vehicle. fast attack units like assault/jet hikes, helicopter or landspeeders (basically a flying car armed with a minigun) or walker units like the Space Marine Dreadnaught or the Wraithlord/guard units keep the same rules as your infantry for the most part. Also, Monstrous Creatures, which are Aliens the size of a small t-rex follow Infantry rules with imports from Vehicle rules, like the ability to drive them through walls, dynamic entry style. Each statistic is rated against values on six-sided die (otherwise known as a d6) (e.g. a 3+ armour save means you must roll 3 or higher (so a one, a two or a three) on a die to hit your opponent) although with shooting you must minus your '''ballistic skill from 7 to find out what you need to roll: so a ballistic skill of 4 means that you must roll a 3+ to shoot, but a ballistic skill of 2 means that you have to roll a 5+ to hit. Category:Warhammer 40k